Transportation and storage of live fish has traditionally involved storage tanks which require large volumes of water and are therefore very heavy. More recent inventions have described methods which utilize small amounts of water which only partially cover the fish in shallow trays together with the introduction of highly oxygenated air into the closed container (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,455,966). This method and others are suited for smaller fish such as tropical aquarium fish, young fish for stocking lakes and ponds, and small bait fish.
Live transportation and storage of large bait fish pose a special problem. Larger fish are more likely to suffer the effects of stress from struggling to breathe while confined. This is especially true for sport fishing boats which may have difficulty handling the weight of large water tanks, but must have some way of keeping large bait fish healthy in order to catch bonita, yellow and blue fin tuna, marlin and other big game and food fish which are only attracted to larger live bait.
Issues of storage of larger live fish are also encountered in tournament fishing or in weighing of record-size fish where it is desirable to keep the fish alive until an official weighing can be made.
The desired storage situation for either large or small fish is one in which the fish is confined to prevent it from injuring or exhausting itself-by thrashing around and is in a sufficient amount of highly aerated water to enable the fish to breathe comfortably, yet not so much water that the weight of the storage apparatus is prohibitive.